Incidents Series Part 3: The Interview Incident
by MaureenT
Summary: A certain journalist comes to the SGC and discovers that interviewing Daniel is more than he bargained for. Jack POV. COMPLETE


**Incidents Series Part 3: The Interview Incident**

**Author:** MaureenT  
**Rating:** K  
**Categories:** Friendship, Humor  
**Content Warning:** None  
**Spoilers:** Heroes  
**Author's Notes:** This is the 3rd fanfic in the Incidents Series. I would highly recommend that you read the previous parts before this one, if you have not already done so, in order to understand the plot.

This story is told from Jack's point of view.

* * *

I hate reporters. Oh, excuse me. _Journalists_. Same thing, as far as I'm concerned. This particular journalist was proving to be an especially big pain in the ass. Emmett Bregman was his name, and he was here to do a documentary on the Stargate Program, one that would probably never be seen by the public. I spent a lot of time trying to avoid the guy. What was worse, though, is how it was impacting Daniel. Bregman knew about the situation with Daniel and had made it pretty clear that he wanted to "interview" him, though it was not an interview that would be in the documentary. Well, that man was getting near Danny over my dead body – Carter's and Teal'c's dead bodies, too. So, a lot of our time was also spent keeping him away from our six-year-old teammate. Fortunately, the rest of the base helped. It almost became a game, keeping Daniel and Bregman at opposite ends of the base. Danny thought it was funny, but it made it so that we were not free to take him wherever we wanted to on base, and we had to constantly be on the alert.

While all this was going on, there was a bit of trouble off-world. SG-11 had been examining some Ancient ruins when they were attacked by a Goa'uld probe, which they destroyed. SG-13 had originally been scheduled for the mission, but the rough, tough Colonel Dixon had gotten a little carried away roughhousing with Danny and ended up with a sprained trigger finger. It still amazes me that a man who claims that he prefers being at work to being at home with his family has taken such a shine to Daniel. But then, this is the kid who, as an adult, charmed Unas bent on murder, not once but twice, so why am I surprised?

Since, unlike SG-13, SG-11 doesn't have an archeologist on their team, they returned to Earth instead of sticking around and staring at a bunch of crumbling ruins. The plan was to send another team to the planet the next day, one that did have an archeologist.

We managed to succeed in keeping Bregman away from Danny the whole first day. The next morning, another team went to the planet and found evidence that Jaffa had been there recently, _very_ recently, like the previous day recently. The Jaffa must have arrived not long after SG-11 left. I don't want to think about what might have happened if the team had decided to stay or if we'd sent another team out right away. We could have lost some people. The thought occurred to me that, if Daniel hadn't been downsized, Dixon wouldn't have sprained his finger, and it would have been his team that went to that planet instead of SG-11. I knew that their archeologist was equally as passionate about all that archeology stuff as Daniel was, and he might have gotten the team to stay longer.

Between her interviews with Bregman and helping us keep the man away from Daniel, Carter finally found the time to work on the probe SG-11 shot up and accessed the data in its memory. When the stuff was translated, we discovered why the Jaffa showed up. The probe had sent off a message about SG-11's presence on the planet. Those Jaffa probably went there hoping to bag some Tau'ri, but, instead, had to leave empty-handed.

It was the afternoon of that second day that what we'd tried so hard to avoid came to pass. Somebody slipped up, and we didn't get warned that Bregman was on his way to the commissary, which was where we were with Daniel.

The second that nosy journalist saw Danny, he made a beeline for him. Teal'c saw the man coming and planted himself in Bregman's way.

"You will not speak with Daniel Jackson," he informed Bregman.

"Hey. Come on. All I want to do is meet him and talk with him a little. I know that he has no memories of his work in the program. But this is a once in a life time opportunity, to talk with someone whose age has been reversed! There won't be a camera, and nothing he says will be recorded or included in the documentary."

I got to my feet and stood beside Teal'c. "Not a chance, Bregman."

I felt a tugging at my shirt and looked down to see Danny.

"It's okay, Jack," he said. "I can talk to him."

"Danny, we don't want you to get upset by any questions he might ask."

"I won't."

I was still tempted to say no, but reluctantly agreed to the interview. I grasped Bregman's arm and pulled him away a few yards.

"Okay, here are the ground rules. You are _not_ to ask any questions or say anything about Daniel's parents or any other member of his family. You are _not_ to do, say or ask _anything_ that might upset him. If he doesn't want to answer a question, you will respect that and not push. If you break any of these rules, I promise you that no one will ever find your body. You got that?" I looked at him in such a way that he would be in no doubt that I meant business.

"I got it."

"Good. When I say the interview is over, it's over, and you will leave Daniel alone for the remainder of your time here."

We all went to Daniel's office. Danny sat right down in his chair, and I couldn't help but picture the adult version in the same spot.

"Well, Daniel. I guess my first question is how you feel about being turned into a child," Bregman said.

"I don't remember being an adult, so it doesn't bother me."

I smiled at the reply. He'd sounded so matter-of-fact.

"Oh. Um, of course," Bregman responded. "All right. I understand that you're growing very fast and that you're regaining memories as you grow. That must be pretty confusing and a little scary."

"It's kind of confusing to have memories of my mom and dad and being in Egypt and other places when I'm really here instead, but I'm getting used to it. And growing up fast is kind of neat. I won't have to be a little kid for a long, long time. I remember being little for ages and ages before."

That made all of us smile, including Bregman.

Daniel spoke again. "Do you know that aliens from outer space pretended to be the gods of Egypt, and Greece, and lots of other places?"

"Yes, I did know that."

"I know lots of things about the Egyptian gods. Mom and Dad taught me. Do you like ancient Egyptian stuff?"

"Actually, I do, although I'm afraid that I don't know very much. I'll have to learn some more someday."

That proved to be a statement the man should never have made.

Before Bregman could manage to steer the conversation back to Daniel's situation, our boy decided to take it upon himself to teach the journalist everything he knew about ancient Egypt – _everything_ he knew. And trust me, he already knew a lot. At once point, Bregman tried to interrupt Daniel, but Teal'c's hand on his shoulder stopped him. By the slight wince he gave, I'm assuming that Teal'c decided that a wee bit of . . . force would be necessary to get the point across that the Jaffa wanted him to let Daniel continue.

As for me, there was no way I was going to stop Danny. I was having too much fun watching Bregman's eyes glaze over.

Danny finally found it necessary to pause for breath, and Bregman instantly jumped in.

"That's all very interesting, Daniel. You know quite a lot for your age."

"Oh, I know more than that. I can tell you the rest of it."

"No!" Bregman's shout had a slightly panicked note to it. He then cleared his throat. "I mean, thank you, Daniel, but I really need to get going. I've got other interviews to do."

"Oh." Danny sounded so disappointed. "Maybe we can have another interview tomorrow."

"Well, um, I'm going to be pretty busy, but we'll see."

Bregman made a rather hasty retreat. I noticed that Carter looked like she was on the verge of breaking into peals of laughter. Even Teal'c looked like he wanted to let out a chuckle or two.

Grinning ear-to-ear, I turned to Daniel. "How about a big piece of chocolate cake topped with ice cream?"

"Yeah!"

Both Teal'c and Carter had other things to attend to, so it was just me and Danny who headed off to the commissary. As we walked, I realized that I shouldn't have been worried about Bregman talking with Daniel. Even at six years old, Daniel Jackson was more than capable of holding his own against one poor, unsuspecting journalist. Actually, the man was probably lucky that he didn't come up against the adult version. Who knew what the adult Daniel would have put Bregman through if he got irked at the guy.

This whole documentary thing was still a pain in the ass, but at least I'd derived one shining moment of pure pleasure from it.

I could only wonder what was yet to come.

THE END . . . until Part 4.

* * *

This was not a part that was originally planned, but I realized that I needed to deal with the events of Heroes. I thought of different ways to change things so that Janet wouldn't be killed, but I decided to go with something simple that wouldn't take over the lion's share of the story and divert attention from Danny and the interview. Making it so that it was SG-11 who went on that mission instead of SG-13 was simple and effective. Unlike SG-13, a team without an archeologist would have no reason to hang around. Of course, this also means that the unpleasant Mr. Woolsey will not be coming to the SGC, and Kinsey won't have a "botched" mission and Janet's death to use against Hammond and SG-1. :-) 


End file.
